Hyundai/Kia is nothing if not ambitious. Over the last 15 years they’ve managed to wedge themselves into nearly every automotive segment, including some tough ones like the full size luxury sedan and competitive EV. Not a bad trajectory considering how budget the entire model lineup was just a few years ago. In 2018 they released two performance-oriented cars on RWD architectures designed to compete in the near-luxury sports sedan segment at prices below the class leaders: the Genesis G70 and the Kia Stinger. I haven’t cared much for the brand’s mainstream offerings, but these two have my attention.
Both of these cousins offer a choice of 2.0-liter turbo four or 3.3-liter twin turbo V6, RWD or AWD, and all paired to an 8-speed in-house automatic. The Genesis G70 is the smaller of the two, a traditional compact 4-door sedan shorter by 3 inches shorter in and 6 inches in length than the midsize 5-door liftback Stinger. The G70 distinguished itself with clean conservative styling and an upscale interior. The Stinger distinguished itself with an immature name sure to cost sales but styling and performance that might win a few back.
Why ape the lowly Germans when you can go for Bentley? Ambitious!
Between the different engines, drivelines, sizes, and styling approaches, Hyundai/Kia covered the segment rather well and provided a lot of choice between the various permutations. Amazingly, both a G70 and a Stinger were on the same used car dealer’s lot on the same day, for the same price. One had the 2.0T. The other, the 3.3T. Both were AWD. Both were silver/gray! What are the odds? I could check out both models and engines in the same convenient stop only 5 minutes away, so down the street I went. The G70 carried only 11K miles and had the little engine. The Stinger carried 50K miles on the big one.
“Which one do you want to try first?” the helpful salesman asked, having arrayed them both prominently out front of the dealership with a Welcome Petrichor sign hanging from each rearview. Today I am royalty! Today we’ll also cover the Genesis. Always start with the small engine first.
Thirty years ago, Lexus made a better S Class for far less money and launched a highly successful luxury brand in the process. Big success story, everyone’s heard it. Twenty-five years later, Hyundai is using a similar approach to make a better 3 Series. This sleek, taught-looking sedan has dethroned the BMW in just about any auto journo review prioritizing steering fidelity, handling, and ride. The interior is traditionally beautiful, lower-tech, and richly furnished. It is adorned with a badge and alphanumeric name unfamiliar to the public but which look and sound appropriately upscale for the vehicle class. Lexus redux. The only thing missing from the attempt to ape Lexus’s success is a dedicated dealership network–a frighteningly massive and inexplicable oversight if you’ve ever stepped into a Hyundai showroom. Oh well, this one is pre-owned so that’s a bridge to cross only when it needs servicing.
Less confining than the TLX, but still too tight for our uses.
Within 60 seconds the G70 was knocked out of contention. That’s how long it took to set my driving position and then pirouette into the backseat. It’s too small. I was worried about that. It’s better than the TLX by some margin because I actually have a few inches of open legroom and my head isn’t against the ceiling. Foot space, however, is very tight under the front seat, requiring me to wedge my shoes underneath. It makes the space feel far more confining than it actually is. The boy will be a teenager before long and he’s on track to hit my height. I wouldn’t want to ride to Oregon back here. The trunk is absurdly small too, at 10.5 cubic feet. I actually cannot remember the last time I saw a trunk figure that small. Wouldn’t want to pack for Oregon back there. There is a spare tire, with the car’s battery underneath it, but the trunk floor is high. This is a sedan for empty nesters; fine to shuttle a few friends to dinner but road trips with teenagers would be just tight enough to be a problem.
Big bummer. I haven’t even started the car but am already smitten with the interior and sheet metal. But, it has the 2.0T engine that is also available in the larger Stinger, so a test drive is still in order to examine that powertrain and off I go.
And man, do I regret not buying this car at its debut in 2018, when I’d still have a good 6-7 years before that backseat would become an issue. It is superb from the driver’s seat. Someone commented in my 430i review that those looking for today’s successor to the BMW 3 series should check out the G70. They were absolutely correct. This Hyundai shames the F30 BMW in steering fidelity, responsiveness, and ride quality. It weighs only 100 pounds less than the BMW but feels so much lighter through the wheel. It turns in adroitly, the steering stays natural in effort and even a bit tactile, and the car rides lightly and comfortably over poor pavement. Agile, light in feel, and comfortable throughout–that’s some expert suspension tuning. I really liked the Acura TLX’s steering and ride/handling balance. I like the G70 even more. Why has anyone been leasing the 3 Series when this was available?
Ah, yes. The dealership. Perhaps fix that, Genesis?
The interior is thoroughly and cohesively executed. The design is clean and attractive, and somewhat traditional. No reliance on massive screens to create the wow factor–that’s accomplished instead by upscale material choices, attention to detail in the brightwork and surface textures, and switchgear that feels like quality. It smells of leather rather than plastic. The dash is thickly padded, stitched and feels solid. The hard plastics on the lower doors and console have an expensive-looking matte finish. The seats are firmly supportive and highly adjustable. The monostable shifter feels substantial in hand. The color palette is warm, subtle, and welcoming. I’ve no idea how it all will age, but right now this is nicer than the BMW and it blows the Acura clean out of the water.
Everything in this high contact area looks and feels nice.
The driving position is excellent, as it has been for all the cars so far. The front cabin is somewhat compact and fitted. I wasn’t cramped in the least, but I also didn’t feel as if I was rattling around like the last cookie in the jar. This compactness is more of an issue for the front passenger because there just isn’t much footwell space compared to the 430i and it strongly limits how far forward the seat can move to provide additional rear passenger legroom. Forward visibility is excellent, and the glass space and lighter interior imparted an airy feel despite the smaller dimensions. It’s quiet on the highway, though perhaps not GS350 quiet.
This car should have been a home run and segment disrupter, but Hyundai brass hobbled its chances from Day One with their dealership non-strategy and most Audi/BMW/Merc lessees seem more interested in the badge than the machinery. And it’s a declining segment anyway. Unfortunate. I hope the G70’s designers and engineers received some commensurate professional compensation and personal satisfaction for the fine work they did here, because the marketplace was reluctant to award them.
Well, that’s the car we can’t have. How about the engine we can?
Small and longitudinal, the 2.0T makes for a tidy and spacious engine bay.
The 2.0 liter turbo four is also out of contention and there’s no point in considering a Stinger equipped with it. Big surprise by now, right? That’s not to say it is a bad engine or even a bad 2.0T–just that it’s a 2.0T and commits the usual 2.0T sins. Laggy takeoff, uninteresting power delivery, doesn’t feel or sound premium enough to be worth upgrading to. Yada yada yada, my normal complaints. Being a Hyundai and this being an older generation engine, I expected a big penalty in engine NVH relative to BMW and Acura and that wasn’t the case. In fact, I thought it sounded better than either of those because it isn’t trying to hide behind excessive digital sound augmentation. Genesis wisely chose to suppress the noise it makes rather than twist it into something ostensibly appealing. The result is a nicely muted growl behind the firewall. Nothing to get remotely excited about, but more importantly nothing to be irritated by.
Beyond the off-idle lag, it works pretty well in the real world. You learn to use throttle position to surf the torque wave and it scoots along strongly enough. Outright acceleration matches the Acura and is a notch behind the BMW, but really–for customers who don’t feverishly check the 0-60 stats before going in for a test drive, this is fully competitive.
It is more difficult and expensive to design and offer buttons and dials in an intuitive and high-quality manner than to bury them in a touchscreen. The G70 nails it here. This is what traditional luxury looks like in 2023, and we’ll miss it when it’s gone.
Now, the elephant in the room. This 2.0T is a member of the highly dysfunctional Theta II engine family which has been costing the company bazillions in recalls, lawsuit settlements, and customer goodwill. These aren’t minor issues, either. Manufacturing defects leaving metal debris in the engine, outright failures, seizing, and/or excessive oil consumption on engines well under the 100K warranty. The family is a big one, ranging from naturally aspirated 2.0 in economy cars like the Elantra to workaday 2.4-liter fours in Sonatas, Optimas, Sportages, Sorentos, to the higher output 2.0T turbos found in this G70. The 2.0T has a much smaller presence in the Hyundai/Kia lineup than the naturally aspirated 2.0 and 2.4 which are specifically mentioned in the news and lawsuit settlements. My brief search failed to find mention of the 2.0 turbo or G70, but big time caveat emptor here, folks. The class action settlement announced last year contains most of what H/K makes clear through the 2019 model year. Want to roll the dice that the turbo somehow escaped its family’s problems or that they fixed the issue for MY2020 vehicles?
I don’t. A 2.0T isn’t remotely worth expensive ownership headaches. However, the 370hp twin turbo V6 is within fiscal reach. It’s from a different engine family that isn’t part of a class action settlement. Not yet anyway. That alone is reason enough to splurge for the extra power and displacement, and it’s in the Kia Stinger that I’ll write about next time.
I don’t like modern cars with their turbos and auto stop shut off engines. I have a 2015 Accord 3.5 V6 naturally aspirated engine that runs on regular gas and a 2009 Nissan Frontier 4.0 V6 naturally aspirated engine and though these may be old technology, I would like to keep each for several more years. Neither has the auto stop shut off engines. Luckily I only have 35,700 on the Honda and 105,450 on the Nissan. What bugs me is that most of the newer engine changes are all mandated by CAFE mileage standards, which is absurd to me.
Now as to the styling of the two subject cars (Genesis and Stinger), yes, I like them. Both Hyundai and Kia are willing to be daring when it comes to styling as compared to the old tried and true Honda and Toyota. But styling is only sheet metal deep. It’s how the car acts that is most important to me.
Looking forward to your report on the Stinger!
“………What bugs me is that most of the newer engine changes are all mandated by CAFE mileage standards, which is absurd to me…….”.
I’d say that the gubbmint has mandated all changes to our vehicles!
Yep, agree. But I was trying to be somewhat tactful and not go into a political tirade which I would love to have done about our “government”.
Yes, that oppressive government with all those pesky regulations. All they accomplished since the 1970’s was to triple gas mileage, clean the air and save thousands of lives with their economy, pollution and safety mandates. The auto industry had to be dragged kicking and screaming into adopting most of them. Oh, did performance suffer? Ask your mother whose Honda Accord will blow the doors off most old muscle cars.
The federal government does do some things right.
you and I are on different sides of the fence. I’m for minimal government interference in Americans lives. They have a certain responsiblity to protect our nation, but they have way overstepped their bounds in so many ways.
The problem with all these “blame it on CAFE” comments is that the person making them fails to understand that there’s a very big world out there beyond the US, and one where CO emissions are often regulated more rigidly that in the US. The market is very much global, and power trains need to meet these standards. The EU standards are significantly more demanding than the EPA’s.
It’s all about reducing CO on a global basis, to address this little pesky global warming issue. There’s a price to be paid for our many decades of driving big lazy V8s: the US spewed an outsize percentage of CO into the atmosphere, and not just overall, but most of all, per capita. We are a high-energy using country, and old habits die hard.
There are always two sides to the story. You are entitled to your belief in what our government says but others are entitled to not believe them. The government basically takes advantage of the people. I, for one, do not believe that humans are harming the climate. I am all for the fossil fuel industry and yes, I do understand that there is a world outside of the United States. Conservatives are not stupid just because we have different opinions from liberals. But I am for the U.S. first, and the rest of the world second. And yes, I’m a strong Christian so don’t say that I’m an uncaring person about other peoples.
When I see useless rear seats like here I wonder why the ‘B’ pillar isn’t simply more to the rear and therefore make a nice coupé out of it . Coupés are not very seller but I hate 4 doors cars since I always end up with this pillar which obstructs my left field .As H-K have front seats that can move back very far, my 6.7″ legs requires it.
In fairness, at 6’7″ you are in the 99th percentile for men’s height in the US. Designing a car that works ergonomically at both the fat middle and trailing ends of the Bell Curve is difficult.
At 5’11” I’m still in the 75th percentile and that backseat would be fine for me up to an hour or so. If it had more toe space under the seat, it would be almost as roomy as the Jetta Sportwagen we carted the kids around in, in rear-facers. As I noted, there would be nearly a decade span between the bulky rear-facing phase and teenage phase where the seat would be just fine.
Do yourself a favor. Find a low mileage Lincoln Town Car. Luxury of sanctuary in a comfortable, dependable, traditional Luxury Sedan! Plenty of power and room. Like riding on a Silver Cloud at a very affordable price. 👌
Thanks Rick, but not quite my thing. So far, the Lexus GS350 has come closest to providing a sharper, rapid driving experience without sacrificing comfort or room. Glad you like your Town Car, there’s nothing quite like it anymore.
You might want to look up how your beloved Town Car performs in a side impact situation. Let’s just say most of us wouldn’t want to be anywhere near one after that. A fairly well known auto writer was once a huge fan and owned one, then got into a side impact and barely made it out alive. He replaced it with a 2016 Accord coupe.
It was a nice enough car for the time, but is now just old. It may fit your specific needs, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right answer for everyone.
It took me a really long time to come around on Hyundai/Kia as even during their turnaround years I couldn’t shake my perception of them being cheap one time use disposable off brands, but I’ll give them credit, they’ve had a compelling lineup in recent years, every other company seemingly is all in on EV and letting their ICE products languish and run out the clock but Kia/Hyundai managed to keep both ideologies interesting and compelling, answering my question “ can’t we just have both and coexist?”. I still think their styling is kind of anonymous/derivative but, whose isn’t these days? They’ve been putting out way stronger designs at a fever pace almost like the good old days of annual design changes some of us long for, I even find a few of their SUVs attractive, ME!
Yes, they’ve transformed so rapidly in style, competitiveness, and outright performance. But the engine problems and the failures of the recent dual clutch auto have kind of soured me on their lineup. Hard for me to trust anything wearing the badge when so many models are affected by such serious problems. A brother in law recently had to ditch their Elantra due to the engine, just out of warranty. They’re back in a Toyota.
I was going to suggest the Lexus IS, but your comment about your son having to sit in the back seat scratched that idea. I agree with you about the engine problems that seem to occur just after the warranty period. I have two Lexus and the dealership treats me like royalty and I don’t see this happening at a Hyundai dealer.
I recently bought a 2018 G90. It is basically like new and I love it! I did a lot of research on them and decided that is was by far the best value to be had.
It weighs almost 5,000 lbs and has a very long wheelbase, thereby giving it a fantastic ride. Mine is the Ultimate with the V8 (no longer offered), with 420 hp, 0-60 in 5.1 sec, and top speed of 155 mph. Smooth and quiet as silk. On a good smooth asphalt road, it is dead quiet. Mine has the ivory interior and it looks like a Bentley inside and out. I think the 2017-2019 design is the most elegant and understated. I wanted a car with presence, but not a showy or big name car. I can’t say enough about how much I love this car. Too many features to list.
Nice car, Bill. It has a beautiful interior. I’ve been trying to convince myself I wouldn’t be better served by this class of car, but I haven’t been 100% successful. Price of entry and fuel costs are what I’m hanging on for now.
Nice car. It’s the first time I’ve read about it. It does seem like a better 3 Series. BTW, how’s the rear leg room on those nowadays? It used to be really bad in the old days.
The 2017-2019 (same for 2020 – 2022 I believe). Huge, if I power the front passenger seat forward and tilt. 14 way power reclining rear passenger seat.
My actual rear seat with front seat automatically powered rearward after turning off the engine for ease of exit.
I have not test driven one as its not a market I play in but they do look like appealing cars. Kudos to them for making a rear wheel drive sedan. But I think their lack of marketplace success goes beyond the dealer network. Unfortunately, for most of the potential customer base they have moved onto a CUV/SUV instead so this is a non-starter regardless of goodness or value.
Certainly Genesis seem to have nailed it as far as quality of materials and presentation goes, and that badge is very Bentley-esque. I recently saw a Genesis SUV while I was killing time at the shops, and it certainly had way more of an upmarket look than I was expecting. Very impressive indeed.
Wonder if BMW is worried, or still laughing their way to the bank?
We do get this in the UK but I don’t think I’ve seen one. Maybe that’s linked to an initial reaction that it’s a bit derivative – a mix of Jaguar grille, Ford lights, BMW side profile and some Skoda Octavia in the rear door. The interior looks good if not original though and – good news – real buttons!
Could it tempt me out of a 420 Gran Coupe, Alfa Giulia or Jaguar XE or XF? Possibly not, but it’s got an easier (= less baggage laden) image than the BMW, maybe easier to live with than the Alfa and perhaps a more contemporary interior. Carefully spec the Jaguar, with its wider range of engine options, and its more distinctive interior, and it could be tempting
The UK and Europe get the long-roof version of the G70. I could almost live with the lack of rear legroom if I had the cargo space.
I’m interested to see what you say about the Stinger, as I did similar cross-shopping about 2 years ago when I wanted something that gave a better highway ride than my GTI provided and ended up in a Stinger GT1. The BMW 430i Gran Coupe, Alfa Giulia, G70, TLX, and Stinger were all on the list. Like you, the G70 was out as soon as I tried to sit behind myself and looked in the trunk. I ended up in the Stinger because of the combination of interior room, cargo space, and power. It will cruise all day long at 80 mph while getting 29-30 MPG with three full-size adults and luggage for a week.
Luke, what’s your mpg ’round town and in mixed tanks? The EPA rating scares me and I’ve already got a gas pig 4Runner in the driveway.
In most tanks outside of winter in typical suburban driving, I get around 20-21 MPG, but do remember that the car requires Premium. During the winter I lose an MPG or two depending on how cold it is. I do have the AWD, so that costs an MPG or so. I don’t think that I’ve ever done a truly “city” tank so can’t really comment there.
The best tank that I ever saw was 31.5 mpg for a pure highway tank heading south on I-81 through Virginia with the cruise set to 75 and little traffic.
Mike O C Aus
Luke, i purchased my 3.3 Stinger in Dec 2019 and it is recommended to put 91 octane
in the tank, this is the lowest. grade here in AUS .I am absutely delighted with the car and its performance. The average fuel consumption is 10 litres per 100km which is approx 28 MPG
It calls for 91 here in the US as well, but here on the East Coast of the US, we get 93. In 2 years and 40k miles that I’ve had the car, I’ve found that the car be picky about the quality of the gas that goes in, so no cheap stuff.
Like you, I would have passed on this powertrain. Otherwise, I find a lot about these cars appealing.
My 2012 Sedona has been one of the best cars I have ever owned, having given me very little trouble over the past dozen years. I used to say that Kia would be my first stop when I went to look for my next new car, but their recent engine troubles give me some pause.